CIEE seeks integrated approach to learning

In its first semester, the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (CIEE) is offering two courses to integrate engineering into other disciplines. The Center, which was created in February 2005, aims to expand nontraditional learning opportunities to students inside and outside of the engineering school.

"CIEE is the result of a strategic planning exercise that dates back to September 2003," engineering school dean Maria Klawe said. "In a series of workshops, roughly 800 alumni, faculty, students and representatives from other universities met to discuss how to make our engineering school one of the best in the country. The best way to do this, we decided, is to utilize the whole University and its resources to strengthen the engineering school."

Attendees of the meetings established "Engineering for a Better World: The Princeton Vision," a statement of the engineering school's goals.

"The primary purpose of CIEE is to create a new model for engineering education based on expanding cross-disciplinary studies, increasing the exposure of engineering students to societal issues and expanding opportunities for students outside of engineering to learn about important technologies," CIEE director Vincent Poor said.

The two new courses are MAE 435: Entrepreneurial Engineering and EGR/MAT/PHY 191-194: An Integrated Introduction to Engineering, Mathematics and Physics (EMP). EMP is a program integrating PHY 103 and 104, MAT 201 and a new engineering course specifically designed for EMP students.

The new class focuses on issues in modern engineering, including energy conversion and its environmental impact, robotic remote sensing and multimedia and information transmission over wireless networks.

"The goal of the integrated course is to give BSE freshmen early exposure to engineering and to learn how math and physics are associated with it," computer science professor Jennifer Rexford said. "Traditionally, these subjects are taken separately and most students do not have much exposure to the discipline of engineering until their sophomore year."

A team of faculty members from math, physics and all six engineering departments are designing and co-teaching EMP. Over the summer, every BSE prefrosh received a letter describing the new course and inviting them to apply for it if they had received at least a 4 on the Advanced Placement Calculus BC exam, Klawe said.

The 37 students currently enrolled take EGR/MAT/PHY 191 and 192 in the fall and continue the integrated course in the spring as EGR/MAT/PHY 193-4. EMP 191-193 is graded using letter grades and EMP 194, as a new project-based course, is graded pass/D/fail.

"As of right now we are just learning math and physics separately, but from my understanding the math we are covering will allow us to go deeper into the physics," Ryan Bayer '09 said. "This has the potential of being really beneficial and really cool."

BSE student Jennifer Drexler '09 said she hopes the integrated approach will help her decide what type of engineering to pursue.

"What really set this course apart [is] the lab work and the ability to try all of the engineering disciplines," she said. "I hope this class will be the easiest way for me to figure out what I want to do as soon as possible."

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MAE 435, which began this fall, is also designed to expand on traditional engineering material. The course applies the technical foundations established in the engineering program to business, financial and marketing aspects of entrepreneurial ventures. Enrollment is limited to 10 AB and 10 BSE students in at least their sophomore year.

"I required that the course be split equally between students in and outside of the engineering school to make it more applicable to the real world," mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Dan Nosenchuck said. "Entrepreneurship involves technical and nontechnical aspects, and students from both fields benefit from working together."

"I think the course is a great one," economics major Meka Asonye '07 said. "It allows those of us with entrepreneurial dreams to pursue our ideas and learn from some of the leaders in the industry. Moreover, it's a change of pace from what seems to be becoming a more ho-hum curriculum."

Students work in small groups to market a product that will be judged by an external industrial directors board. If the panel deems a product successful, the members of the board will support that product and develop it on a national scale, Nosenchuck said.

"I cannot yet say how the course will be integrated into the formal curriculum," he said. "But I have high expectations."

Robert Moore '06, who's taking the course, said, "We're being given every lesson, channel and support mechanism we will need to develop a consumer product and bring it to a substantial market ... It's not like other classes where student teams are competing with each other for grades. Here we're actually competing with the other businesses in the markets we explore, and our rewards will come in the form of profits."

CIEE staff members are looking to expand the Center's offerings in the coming years, including broadening the focus of current engineering courses and increasing the number of technology courses available to AB students. An industrial internship program for BSE students to gain firsthand experience is also being developed, Poor said.

He added that the Center has received enormous support in its recent efforts.

"Over the past few months, I've given a number of talks about CIEE at reunions to various alumni groups in the United States and Asia. The response has been uniformly positive," Poor said.

Klawe said that with continued fund-raising support, the Center will begin recruiting professors to create interdisciplinary courses aimed at AB, BSE and graduate students.

"By introducing more integrated courses, CIEE will help students learn that the real world is not divided by departments," she added.